[digg-me]According to PhoneScoop, “tethering is connecting your phone to a laptop or similar data device using a data cable, usually for the purpose of connecting to the Internet on the laptop, via the phone’s wireless connection to the cell phone network. Carriers usually charge more money for accessing the Internet via tethering, as opposed to on the phone itself. Sometimes this is enforced via technology in the phone, although often it is simply the honor system and not strictly enforced”.

In our case, AT&T clearly doesn’t want you to tether your iPhone. Strangely, they don’t even have such a plan you could subscribe to in order to use your iPhone as a modem. So to make it clear, tethering your iPhone is against AT&T Terms Of Services.

At first there was Netshare, that quickly was banned from the App Store. Then iPhoneModem came along but we haven’t heard much about them… Given how uneasy it was to set it up, I didn’t even give it a try.

But here is some hope from a new app called PDAnet by June Fabrics. PDAnet is actually not new as it has been one of the most popular software for Windows Mobile phones and Palm OS phones. It is now ported to the iPhone! The 1.2 version turns your iPhone into a true WiFi router for your computer (MAC or PC), and allows your laptop to go online wirelessly through the 3G network on the iPhone.

What are the benefit of usint PDAnet to tether your iPhone?

full Internet access at 3G speed (if available) on your laptop

easy setup

works with Windows, Mac, and Linux

ability to use other applications while using PADnet

How to set up PDAnet?

This is a PDAnet tutorial for Windows XP. I assume steps are very simmilar on Vista. I don’t have a Mac so I can’t help you set up PDAnet on a Mac. I also posted a quick video on YouTube. The video + this tutorial should help you install PDAnet without any issue.

First, you need to create an ad-hoc network.

Go to Control Panel >Network Connections

Right click on “Wireless Network Connection” and select “Properties”

Select the “Wireless Networks” tab

Click “Add”

Give a name to your network in the SSID box, ie. “iPhone”

For security purposes, uncheck the box that says “The key is provided for me automatically”

Enter a “Network Key” and confirm it (this will make sure no one gets on your network)

Check “This is a computer-to-computer (ad-hoc) network; wire less access points are not used”

Click “OK”

On your iPhone, go to Settings > WiFi and your newly create network should show up, unless your computer is already connected to a router. Select your network and enter the WEP key if you set it up

On your PC, go to “View Wireless Networks”

Select the network you created

Now it should just try to establish the connection but not connect; it’s ok

On your iPhone, open PDAnet

Turn WiFi router ON

That’s it!

Ok, now, the not-so-cool stuff… Although it looks pretty easy, it took me a while to have it set up. For some reason, my “iPhone” network wouldn’t show up on my iPhone in WiFi settings. After doing the steps over and over again for like 20 minutes, it finally worked. I’m not sure what I was doing wrong.

The way I did it is that I completely deleted my home WiFi network from both my PC and my iPhone, so there was no conflict between my ad-hoc network and my Wifi network. It now works like a charm. It is very very fast too. I was actually amazed at how fast it was.

PDAnet will drain your battery like crazy so you may want to plug it to your computer to charge the battery. When you’re done using it, don’t forget to turn it off…

@ct – what do you mean by “heavy data transfer”? Are you guys downloading movies or something? Just kidding. I’ll try to to some heavy data transfer with PDAnet and see if I get the same issue tonight.

ct

Even running a simple ping google.com -t for more than 5 minutes will cause the iphone to crash when using PDANet. I am using firmware 2.1 and vista on my laptop.
when downloading a file the result will be same after 3-5 minutes.
Great software but useless if you cant keep it up for more than 5 minutes.

@David – I havent tried to connect several computers but I always assumed you could only have one computer at a time.

thanh

why is it that when I finished everything and on pdanet screen it says to go back and connect my iPhone to the adhoc network? I already done that

Kevin

One small point, after Step 9, in order for the “iPhone” ad hoc network to be visible on the iphone you have to hit connect on your laptop and the message “Waiting for network” should appear…this is when the laptop starts broadcasting the SSID so that your iphone can pick it up. Cheers!

I can not sing in to anny of my sites when im runing pdaNet i could but now when i go to facebook or yahoo signin or even myspace i can get web page and search annything about the sites but when i signin i get the msg this site is taking to long to load try agen latter or if you cant long into anny site check your internet conecthion or if you have a fire wall or a proxy check to make shure firefox or internet explore can ackses the sites can some plese help me with this thanks

Ariana

I’m having the same issue as code3. I’m not sure, but I think this started after I updated pdanet to version 2.41. Does anyone know a way to fix this?

My Iphone has been jailbroken thought, I can not download PADnet through Cydia, Would you mind telling me why?

Thanks!

Tim

I have a router hardwired up to my laptop and I’m useing my iPhone as a wireless wifi thru PDanet but for me to use the internet thru my iPhone I have to diconnect my hardwired router which isn’t working for me because I’m wanting to update my media center that is hardwired to my laptop… Is there anything I can do in the setup to allow me to use both at the same time?

Chris

will you ever have to pay for it???????????

Jenandjim

Can I tether my home computer & my Wii, which I use to watch Netflix both at the same time?

Jenandjim

Can I tether my home computer & my wii, which I use to stream movies, both at the same time using my Iphone?

Jimandjennifer

Does the iphone need to be jailbroken in order for this program to work?